Comments
Incentives and sops given to manufacturing and service sectors and higher resource mobilisation through direct and indirect taxes, has chambers of commerce in Karnataka cheering the Union Budget.
The budget proposes three new smart cities in the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor region – Ponneri in Tamil Nadu, Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Tumkur in Karnataka.
Also the perspective plan for the Bangalore Mumbai Economic corridor (BMEC) and Vizag-Chennai corridor is to be completed with the provision for 20 new industrial clusters.
As for the textile mega-clusters, the budget proposes clusters at Bareily, Lucknow, Surat, Kutch, Bhagalpur, Mysore and one in Tamil Nadu, for which a sum of ₹200 crore has been allocated.
“Budget tries to address the concern of dwindling savings, both individuals and corporates. It has also given more thrust on infrastructure development by developing Chennai-Bangalore and Bangalore-Mumbai industrial corridors, construction of airports in tier II cities which would generate more employment,” said A N Chandramouli, President, BCIC.
S Sampathraman, President, FKCCI, said the Finance Minister had taken positive steps for financial restructuring and that the budget is growth-oriented.
Freezing taxes, reducing deficits, making strategic investments and reduction in duties in some areas and reviewing the transfer pricing policy are encouraging and conducive to growth, he said.
The budget has addressed many issues raised by the small scale industrial (SSI) sector in keeping with its status as the largest creator of jobs and the second largest contributor to the GDP, said Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA).
“The Finance Minister has announced several initiatives that give us hope,” said observed Chidananda M Rajamane, President, KASSIA.
He welcomed the proposals for 20 industrial clusters, ₹10,000 crore fund for startups, national industrial corridors to link cities, revising the definition of MSME to provide for higher capital ceiling, suitably amending the Apprentice Act to strengthen the apprentice training scheme, announcing a national multi-scale programme called Skill India to provide training and support for employment, creating venture capital fund of ₹10,000 crore for SMEs and preparing the ground for introduction of GST by end of this year.
The industrial cluster at Tumkur on the Bangalore-Mumbai industrial corridor fulfils a long-pending demand of Karnataka, he added, as was the decision to bring out an exit policy for small-scale industrialists, Rajamane said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.